Tops surge past Bearkats for 102-91 win
Published 6:30 pm Friday, January 2, 2026
Western Kentucky’s men’s basketball team overcame another ominous start on Friday against Sam Houston.
Held to 10 points through the first nine minutes, the Hilltoppers appeared to be repeating the sputtering beginning that doomed them in a road loss to Jacksonville State on Monday. Then the cloud lifted as the Tops poured in 92 points over the final 31 minutes to grab a 102-91 victory at E.A. Diddle Arena.
“I was concerned it would be the same,” WKU coach Hank Plona said. “We made some 3s at the end of the first half to hang around — Ryan (Myers) made a couple and Teagan (Moore) banked in that 3 from half court. It’s crazy how those are more than 3-point shots, it feels like. And then when that happens to you, aw man is it brutal because you’ve got to sit on it for 15 minutes.”
Moore, a redshirt sophomore guard from Dry Ridge, finished with a career-high 28 points with a trio of 3-pointers — including that bomb right before the break that got the Tops back to within seven points at 49-42.
WKU (8-5 overall, 1-1 Conference USA) trailed 20-10 after a pair of made free throws by Sam Houston’s Po’Boigh King with 11:08 left in the first half. The Tops answered with an 11-2 run capped by LJ Hackman’s 3-pointer to get back to within one at 22-21, but the Bearkats pushed the lead back out over the next six minutes.
Down 42-28, the Tops fended off a potential blowout when Myers started to heat up from 3-point range. The graduate senior guard from Brooklyn had another one of his stretches of red-hot shooting, hitting a trio of 3s in less than two minutes before Moore’s heave from near mid-court got the Tops to within seven at the half.
“I knew it was good the second it left my hands,” Moore said. “Yeah, I think that gave us a good punch going into the second half that we rode all the way to the end of the game.”
The runs continued into the second half, with the Tops nearly erasing that seven-point deficit with a 6-0 run ended by King’s 3-pointer. Cam Haffner and Armelo Boone followed with back-to-back 3s to knot the score at 60-all, then Moore scored on an old-fashioned three-point play off an offensive putback and a foul. That was part of a 15-2 spurt that pushed the Tops out to a 69-62 lead with 12:22 left.
Sam Houston (8-5, 0-2) reeled off eight straight points to retake the lead, then the Tops responded with a 9-0 run finished off by another Myers triple to take a 79-70 lead with 8:30 to go. Sam Houston kept scoring, but not as often as the Tops — WKU tied its season high with 14 made 3-pointers off 35 tries, bettering the Bearkats’ 10-of-28 day from beyond the arc.
“I’m not sure if that was the prettiest 40 minutes of basketball,” Plona said. “I could probably pick us apart and tell you all the millions of things that we need to get better at. But at the same time, I thought we showed a lot of toughness and grit. And once we were forced to have our backs against the wall, I thought we responded very, very well — played together, showed some toughness, made a lot of toughness plays, made some good basketball plays. Obviously it’s great to be a really good team like that at home.”
Isaiah Manning scored 23 points and King had 21 to lead the Bearkats.
Myers tallied 18 points and added three assists.
“Just stayed in the moment, trusted my teammates, trusting everything that we’ve got going on,” Myers said.
Boone delivered another all-around excellent performance. The freshman from Lexington posted a double-double with 16 points and a team-high 13 rebounds, plus added a pair of blocks and two assists.
Grant Newell, who sat out most of the first half with early foul trouble, finished with 12 points and six rebounds. Haffner and Hackman chipped in with nine points each, while 7-foot senior Noah Boyde delivered solid production in a career-high 26 minutes with eight points, six rebounds, three steals and a block.
It will be a short turnaround for the Hilltoppers, who host CUSA rival Louisiana Tech in a 2 p.m. game Sunday at E.A. Diddle Arena.
Plona said junior forward Louie Semona, who missed the Jax State game, saw a spine specialist in northern Kentucky on Friday to address a back issue. Plona said Semona could be out “10 to 14 days, maybe. It doesn’t sound like it’s anything tragic.”
Graduate senior point guard Terrion Murdix continues to move back toward playing for the first time since injuring his right knee during the Tops’ trip to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis. Plona said Murdix is “doubtful” for Sunday’s game against Louisiana Tech despite fully practicing with the team.
“I’d say probably as we’re sitting here today, we’re shooting for next Thursday for him,” Plona said. “I think it’s a real possibility that he could play on that trip.”
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